Dear Parishioners:
We continue to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, centered on the birth of Christ. I hope and pray you had a joyful celebration of the Savior’s birth with family and friends. Christmas reminds us of the beauty and holiness of the Holy Family as we witness Mary and Joseph adore the Christ Child. This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The importance of their example of faith and love is essential for all families. As Saint John Paul II said, the Holy Family is “the prototype and example for all Christian families.”
Today many laws and cultural trends seem to undermine the family. Therefore, families most especially Catholic families must model themselves on the Holy Family, living as domestic churches, to counter these anti-family forces. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI urged families to “resist the disintegrating forces of a certain contemporary culture which undermines the very foundations of the family institution.”
The Holy Family serves as a model first and foremost, because their lives were centered around Jesus, the living Son of God, Every family is called to center their lives around Jesus the Lord. The family that does this grows in holiness and faith. The family that does not simply will not grow in holiness.
Secondly, all the members of the Holy Family strived to do God’s will in their lives. In fact, the Holy Family was holy because they always sought to do God’s will not their own. Every family that desires to be holy is called to do the same echoing the Blessed Mother’s “Thy Will Be Done!”
Mother Mary gave her “Yes” to God at the Annunciation; Joseph obeyed God by caring for Mary and Jesus. St. Luke recounts that Jesus at age 12 “was obedient to” to Mary and Joseph. And as Jesus advanced in “wisdom and age and favor before God and man” He always obedient, even to death on the cross.
To be Christ-centered, families must inspire one another to become holy. We need to encourage each other to do God’s will by doing God’s will ourselves always with faith and joy. Every family, no matter its size or experience should help each other to do this by offering a witness to their faith in their daily living.
In the Holy Family, Joseph teaches husbands and fathers, whose primary role is to love and serve their wives and children in all things by providing, sacrificing and inspiring them with examples of strong faith, deep love and great joy.
The Blessed Mother is a great model and intercessor for wives and mothers in how to make their homes true schools of sanctity. Like Mary, wives and mothers must be on fire for the faith and make their love for God contagious especially for their children.
The Holy Family was holy because they prayed. From the earliest days, the Holy Family went regularly to the Temple. They celebrated the major feasts. His parents taught Jesus Hebrew, like all Jews, by reading and learning the sacred Scriptures.
Because families are little churches in the large Church, the celebration of Holy Mass — the greatest prayer — always needs to be the heart and center of the Catholic family, Prayer must be the basic structure of family life, particularly daily prayer, rosary and grace at meal times. Also faithful attendance as a family at Sunday Mass even before sporting events and frequent Confession of sins must be part of any faithful Catholic family. As a model for all families, the Holy Family truly loved each other, sacrificing for each other, bearing one another’s burdens and always forgiving. . So turn to the Holy Family this weekend in faith and love and learn from them.
We thank Deborah Caparco Runshe and Betsy Caparco Harris of the Hill Funeral Home for once again sponsoring the beautiful parish calendars for 2020. Please take one home with you this weekend. Also if you know of a shut-in or neighbor who needs a calendar, please take one for them as well.
On behalf of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, and our good Sisters, I wish you many blessings for the New Year! Join us for Mass on New Years Day, there is no better way to begin 2020! It’s a holy day of obligation and the schedule of Masses is in the bulletin. Happy New Year! God Bless. Go Pats!